Background
Ernest Cherrington was born on November 24, 1877 in Hamden, Ohio, United States. He was the son of George Cherrington and Elizabeth Ophelia (Paine) Cherrington.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Ernest Hurst Cherrington
Edit ProfileEducation
Reared in the small towns and rural communities of southern Ohio, where his father, a Methodist clergyman, held pastorates, Cherrington attended the preparatory department of Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware (1893 - 1897).
Career
He taught school in Ross County, edited a smalltown newspaper, the Kingston Tribune, and began speaking on Sundays for the Ohio Anti-Saloon League, which had been founded at Oberlin in 1893. In 1902 he became a full-time temperance worker as superintendent of the Canton district of the league. His effectiveness in field work soon attracted the attention of Purley A. Baker, the state superintendent, who the following year selected Cherrington as his assistant. Ohio, the birthplace of the Anti-Saloon League, often served as a training ground for league work elsewhere. In 1905 Baker, now head of the national organization, sent Cherrington to Seattle as superintendent of the Washington league. There Cherrington brought new vigor to the temperance movement, building a powerful organization, editing the league's newspaper, the Citizen, and initiating a successful campaign for a state local-option law. The national league called Cherrington to Chicago in 1908 to become assistant editor of its new newspaper, the American Issue. The following year the league moved its headquarters to Westerville, Ohio, a town just north of Columbus, and built a large printing plant there. Recognizing Cherrington's ability, Baker selected him as editor of the American Issue and general manager of the Anti-Saloon League's publishing activities. Under Cherrington's management the American Issue Publishing Company became a huge enterprise. During the following decade his presses produced in vast quantities the temperance propaganda so important to the success of the prohibition movement. While directing this enormous effort, Cherrington, a resourceful organizer and effective administrator whose energies could not be confined to one field, exerted a dominant influence upon many other policies and activities of the Anti-Saloon League. As secretary of the national executive committee he developed the league's fund-raising program, managed its finances, and organized its national speakers' bureau. The league's publisher, he was also its editor, statistician, and historian. He wrote three books and numerous pamphlets and articles, compiled the Anti-Saloon League Year-book (1908 - 1932), and edited a six-volume reference work, the Standard Encyclopedia of the Alcohol Problem (1925 - 1930). On Cherrington's initiative, the league in June 1919 expanded its scope and founded the World League against Alcoholism, an organization to promote prohibition throughout the world. As general secretary, Cherrington made the direction of its work his chief concern after 1919. Cherrington was the youngest of the Ohio leaders who, along with Bishop James Cannon, Jr. , of Virginia, dominated the American prohibition movement. Handsome, well over six feet tall and of stout build, he was forthright but conciliatory in manner, and his moderation and sound judgment were valued in the league's often stormy inner councils. He shunned publicity and remained in the background while more flamboyant figures captured the headlines. Nevertheless, the huge propaganda effort he directed, the massive speaking campaigns he organized, and his businesslike management of the league's financial affairs were as important to the success of prohibition as the more spectacular legislative and political work of others. Recognizing these contributions, Bishop Cannon considered Cherrington the one man most responsible for the adoption of the Eighteenth Amendment. The triumph of Cherrington and his colleagues was relatively short-lived, for economic depression and the repeal of prohibition dealt the temperance movement a harsh blow in the 1930's from which it never recovered. The Anti-Saloon League virtually collapsed, and its leaders, now powerless, were quickly forgotten, although Cherrington and others continued as best they could on a greatly reduced scale. In addition to his temperance work, Cherrington was a prominent layman in the Methodist Episcopal church. In 1936 Cherrington moved to Washington to become executive secretary of his church's Board of Temperance. There he edited the board's organ, the Voice (1936 - 1948), and by strenuous effort retired the large debt on the Methodist Building, the church's headquarters on Capital Hill. Upon retirement in 1948, Cherrington returned to Westerville, the scene of his life's work. He died of cancer two years later in a sanitarium in nearby Worthington. After cremation, his remains were buried in Otterbein Cemetery, Westerville, where many of the other Anti-Saloon League leaders are also buried.
Achievements
Connections
On March 17, 1903, Cherrington married Betty Clifford Denny of Greenville; they had two children, Ernest Hurst and Ann Elizabeth.
-
Born
-
Died
1950 (aged 72) -
Resting place
Otterbein Cemetery, Westerville, Ohio, United States -
Nationality
American -
Religion
Methodist